Business Partners Of Gujarat CM's Daughter Got 250 Acres For Less Than Rs 2 crore: Report

Gujarat's first woman chief minister, Anandiben Patel gets emotional during a meeting at the Town Hall in Gandhinagar, some 30 kms from Ahmedabad on May 21, 2014. Anandiben Patel was termed as the new Gujarat chief minister and will take the oath on May 22 in Gandhinagar. AFP PHOTO / Sam PANTHAKY (Photo credit should read SAM PANTHAKY/AFP/Getty Images)

Wildwoods Resorts and Realties, promoted by Dakshesh Shah and Amol Shripal Sheth, business associates of 45-year-old Patel, the daughter of Anandiben Patel, stands on a 400-acre plot near the Gir lion sanctuary in Gujarat’s Amreli district.

A number of transactions happened between Patel, who describes herself as a social worker and an entrepreneur, and her associates when the Gujarat government allotted 250 acres at Rs 0.15 per square metre to the company they owned, the ET report said, citing filings with the Registrar of Companies.

ET's queries to the government of Gujarat did not elicit any response while Patel, Shah and Sheth insisted that all the transactions were above board.

Anandiben is also in charge of the revenue portfolio in her government. The original promoter of Wildwoods, a Dubai-based businessman named Sanjay Dhanak, told the paper that his initial plans of building a tourist resort on the land never took off.

Meanwhile, the current promoters claimed they have received all the necessary regulatory clearances for the project and that there was no prohibition on building a resort on the 400-acre tract.

Wildwoods was owned by Dhanak when the land allotment orders were issued in 2010. It was after this that Shah and Sheth took control of the company. At present, Parshva Texchem and Anil Infraplus, which are entities in which Anar has substantial stakes, own Wildwoods.

Dhanak said he did not recollect how much was paid for the 422 acres of land. Dakshesh said he was not aware how much Wildwoods had paid for the land since he took a stake in the firm only in 2011 and was “not aware of previous transactions.”